Remember this? Local sculptor Bruce Kirby created a much admired sculpture park outside the church for the Littlehempston 2012 Craft Fair and some of us have his work gracing our gardens. He also cleaned up the World War One memorial stone in the church porch and carefully restored the lettering.
This coming week, Bruce’s work will be on show at Birdwood House from Sunday 5th to Saturday 11th November from 10am to 4.45pm daily. A geology graduate, Bruce combines this knowledge with his skills as a stonemason, and his sculptural work is frequently based upon the geology seen in the rocks both locally and abroad. His climbing skills have allowed him to investigate quartz in the Himalayas …. and the ochre stained cliffs and caves below Berry Head.
Bruce says: “The vast geological time scale contrasted with the seconds it takes to make a mark with a single strike of a chisel is hard to comprehend. Stone is an amazing natural material that has huge variety depending upon how it was formed. The colour and texture along with any features such as fossils or sedimentary structures tell a story from millions of years ago. An example of this might be the cracked, dried up mud and fragile, but perfectly preserved casts of salt crystals as the puddle dried out, millions of years ago. Each fragment of rock is incredibly old and has a vast history before any carving takes place.”
His work can also be seen on display at the London Contemporary Art Gallery in London and The Sculpture Park in Farnham.